


One Year Later

by ladywaffles (JaneEyre)



Category: Lizzie Bennet Diaries, Pride and Prejudice - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-11-16
Updated: 2013-11-18
Packaged: 2018-01-01 19:01:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,476
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1047466
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JaneEyre/pseuds/ladywaffles
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jane Bennet is about to see her former boyfriend Bing Lee at the wedding of her sister, Lizzie , one year after their break-up.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Lizzie was the one getting married. Not me. She’s the one who’s supposed to be a nervous wreck. I must not allow myself to be one. I have to be the strong one. Those thoughts have been running through my head non-stop since the day I saw the RSVP’d he sent back. I mean, it makes sense; he’s the groom's best friend. 

The last time we saw each other was at the engagement party. The sunny day was obscured by our fight and the tacit promise of never seeing or talking to each other again. I’m not going to lie: it was ugly. We were both right and we were both wrong. It’s not like me to get into a fight. I’m the quiet and the nice one. Nobody expected me of all people to argue this loud and to say the things I did. I can still remember precisely, a year later today, the words he shouted at me. 

“Why are you so upset?”  
“It’s my life, not yours”  
“Jane, stop trying to please everyone, it’s not fair for me to be put last.”  
“For someone who takes pride in being selfless, you sure are being selfish now”

It hurts to remember and I wished we could’ve have worked it out like the adults that we are but sadly it is no longer an option until time travel’s invented. In the life of a 27 year old young woman, one single year seems like an awful lot of time. 

The fighting was not for something silly, that, I remember. It was about my refusal to quit my job to follow him at the other end of the continent. He had just been accepted at NYU in the school of Nursing. I did not want to give up my job, my family, my life. We were at the engagement party of Lizzie and Darcy, who began dating around the same time as we got back together, and me and Bing were still sleeping in our own apartment, going absolutely nowhere. And he wanted me to quit all I’ve ever known so he could pursue his dream? I do not say I wanted a ring on my finger, far from there. But I wanted reassurance that this was going somewhere, that we were going toward something, in the future, that we were not running around a circle. Which lead to me losing my temper and let me tell you, it does not happen often. 

“Jane! Can you help me fix my hair?”

That was Lizzie calling me and that meant only one thing for me: in less than one hour, I will be in the presence of the infamous Bing Lee, after one year of absence.


	2. Chapter 2

I open the doors and Lizzie’s smile brighten up immediately.

  
_“Thank God you’re here! My hair’s a mess and I don’t have a slight idea of how to fix it.  Can you please help me? Your hair is always perfect, even the people on the Internet said so”,_ Lizzie plead to me.

 

_“And hello to you to Lizzie,”_ I reply, _“ I told you yesterday that you have to put the dress before doing your hair. You obviously did not listen to me but I’ll fix it, don’t worry, it’s my duty as maid of honor and as your big sister.”_

 

She was wearing one of the most gorgeous wedding gown I’ve ever seen.  Being the fiancée of the CEO of Pemberley could have helped since the budget was essentially infinite but Lizzie insisted on paying for it herself.  I have a feeling Lizzie will never allow Darcy to pay for her at all for as long as she lives.  My sister’s like that, she doesn’t take anything that she has not earned. 

 

The dress we chose was obviously white but it was a washed-out white which gave an old vibe to the dress.  It was in fact a vintage dress, with laces descending her delicate spine.  The front was an exquisite balance of laces and fabric, with an empire waist.  The bottom flowed quietly yet it did not puffed out.  The sleeves were short and allowed for a V-shaped cleavage.  The dress fitted Lizzie perfectly and she fitted perfectly in it. 

 

_“Are you just going to stand there with your deer-in-headlights   expression, staring at me ?”,_ asks Lizzie.

_“It’s just… you’re so beautiful and pretty and you deserve, this,  this, this happiness so much”_

 

I started crying, overwhelmed by all the emotions.  The waterfalls on my face were fast menacing my makeup. Lizzie got up and hugged me.

 

_“You should save your tears for the wedding”,_ she said to me, _“There have to be at least one person to cry.”_

 

_“Oh, I think Mom will fill that role quite nicely, with you, marrying a rich young eligible bachelor. You remember how she wept tears of joy for three days when she you started dating Darcy. Try imagining  her this afternoon.”_

 

We both laughed since we know that our Mom was going to be loud, she was going to be a mess but she was also going to be there for us.  Lizzie sat down in front of the mirror, her hair still chaotic.  I knew that we had settled on a simple messy chignon, but the one I had in front of me was definitely not the right kind of messy.  We had one hour to salvage it before we had to drive to the wedding.  We did not see each other as much as we would like; we both had a lot of work.  She asked me how my job was going, that sort of thing, and after about 15 minutes, she asked me the dreaded question.

 

_“What are you going to do about Bing ?”_


	3. Chapter 3

I hadn't really asked myself that question before. What was I going to do about Bing?  My entire body is telling me that I should go talk to him as soon as possible.  The second “break-up” wasn’t as bad as the first one we had.  This time, I was stronger and it was needed on both sides.  One year of reflection on our relationship gave me the impression that we were right to break-up but stopping altogether to talk to someone, to stop spending all of our free time together: that was the hard part, learning to be alone.  I barely knew what to do with myself.  It took me three months to accept it and to learn how to be with myself.  Even today, I yearned for the presence of unconditional love beside me. 

_“Are you thinking of asking him to get back together?”_

 

My silence must have sparked another question from Lizzie. 

 

“ _I don’t know what I am going to do.  I don’t know how I am going to react when I’ll see him.  I mean, we haven’t seen each other for over a year and our goodbyes weren’t pretty, I’m sure you remember…”,_ I reply.

 

She calmly pondered my confession and responded with one of her precious advice:

 

_“Nobody knows what’s going to happen in the future.  Even William and I have our own fights sometimes, it’s normal to have them.  Even though it isn’t as bad as the one you had last year, fighting can be good for a couple.  It helps by moving them forward and forcing difficult questions to be asked.  Love isn’t always easy and it should not be.”_

 

She was right. I already knew that.  I never also never knew that I could be so strong headed until I put off my resolution of talking to Bing under the excuse that he should be the one talking to me first since he was the one to instigate The Fight. The best for now would be to just talk about it.

 

_“Can we concentrate on how beautiful you look, especially since I fixed your hair? William is going to suffer a heart attack when he’ll see you.”_

 

_“If he hasn’t already had one.  I mean it’s the day of our wedding, what could possibly worst for someone who hates large social gathering?”,_ Lizzie replied.

 

_“His eyes’ll be on you and for you alone.  I don’t he’ll ever notice that there are going to be a legion of people around him.”,_ I retort.

 

_“He has to.  After all, if he leaves my side, Mom will be ready to present him to all of her friends, to show them that her tactics worked”_ , chuckled Lizzie, _“and I don’t think he could really handle that even though he’s made real progress with humor and social situations.”_

 

We chatted the rest of the hour and when it was finally time to go, Lizzie took my hand and reassured me:

 

  _“You’ll be fine. You’re the sweetest, strongest and nicest person I know. Open your mind to what your heart’s saying and you’ll be fine."_


End file.
